The proposed research investigates from two quite different points of view the question of marital intensity. One line is a longitudinal study dealing with the reactions of married couples, who have been using either the Pill or the IUD, to childbearing. It is hypothesized that marital intensity has a complex bearing on the decision to have children, particularly after children have been deferred for some time. The second aspect of this research addresses the question of marital intensity and/or exclusivity in a cross-cultural perspective. Utilizing ethnographic materials from the Human Relations Area Files, it proposes to test, in a cross-cultural context, the clinical hypotheses that are being investigated in the longitudinal study. The study also proposes, within both a clinical and a cross-cultural framework, to investigate the attitudes toward and reactions to abortion. The methodological considerations will be treated as follows: carefully worked out interview dealing with aspects of the marriage which may be indices of intensity and exclusivity and which will use generally the methodology proposed by H. S. Sullivan (1950, 1953). The methodological considerations for the cross-cultural study have been specified by Whiting (1971) and by Goethals and Whiting (1957) in previous publications.